HANNAH FRANCES

BIO

Amidst peeling birch, sundried and fragrant husks, a flooded riverbed, and a solemn, wet, echoing cave, Hannah Frances returns with a dense and daring new album, Keeper Of The Shepherd.

At times raucous and toiling, and at times hypnotizing in its softness, Keeper of The Shepherd is a careful excavation through the ruins of Frances’ past as she carves out what’s been lost and buried, praising the possibility of a life more whole. This album is a rebirth in every sense of the word, showcasing Frances’ virtuosic songwriting, arrangement, and musicality, while displaying a deep and churning emotional vulnerability. Across its seven sprawling tracks, here is an album that begs to be listened to on repeat, each subsequent turn revealing a new heart-splitting revelation, each song calling back to the one before it with a biting and clever clarity. In a gesture of frank and determined curiosity, Frances asks: What is mine to take hold of, and what is meant to be left behind? How do I love without losing myself? How do I heal what’s been broken and feel myself worthy again?

Frances was a devoted and eager artist from the age of 5, taking dance, piano, trumpet and voice lessons, and starring in musical theater productions. While heavily shaped by the influence of her mother, a professional pianist and music educator, Frances saw her participation in performing arts as the most natural expression for herself, even as a child. She continued to sing and perform in theater and jazz band, and was heavily involved in the School of Rock program. After high school, Frances spent one year studying performing arts at Savannah College of Art and Design before dropping out. “As you should from art school.” From there, she used her education money to launch herself into what she fittingly calls her “Patti Smith life”. She moved to the East Village, did an NYU songwriting program for a summer, and then began nannying full time. She was 19.

By that time, Frances had already begun writing her own songs, confident in her innate and embodied relationship to her voice and singing. “But my guitar playing, that was learned,” she explains. The discovery of Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell opened up a portal to guitar playing that Frances hadn’t yet found. Using the expansive and infinite repertoire of Joni Mitchell’s open guitar tunings, Frances slowly built an entirely new relationship to the instrument, and something clicked into place. “I found so much of myself. I was like, ‘Oh this is how I want to play guitar, because it just feels so good’. It was all based on feeling, all based on intuition.”

She released her first recorded project in 2017, and continued to record and release throughout the years following. Her last album, Bedrock, released independently in May of 2021 preluded a stark year with very little writing, that left Frances poised for something new.

Keeper of The Shepherd came to Frances at first in small pieces, and then all at once.